Abstract

Background Little is known about suicide in England in the medieval
period. Legal records provide the best source of post-mortem data about
suicides.

Method Selected Eyre records from the reigns of Henry III
(1216-1272), Edward I (1272-1307), Edward II (1307-1327) and Edward III
(1327-1377) were translated and examined for details of self-killing.

Results One hundred and ninety-eight cases of self-killing were
found, eight of which were found to be accidental, non-felonious deaths.
Self-killing was more common in men. Hanging was the most common and drowning
the second most common method of self-killing in both males and females.
Self-killing with sharp objects was predominantly a male method. Other methods
of self-killing were rare. There were no reports of deliberate self-poisoning.
There is some evidence of underreporting of, and attempts to conceal,
self-killing from royal officers.

Conclusions Eyre records suggest that although some of the facts
surrounding self-killing have changed, others have remained constant,
particularly the higher proportion of men who kill themselves and the greater
use by men than women of sharp instruments to kill themselves. We discuss the
description and understanding of psychiatric states by medieval English Eyres,
particularly in terms of the perception of the mental states that accompanied
suicidal actions.

The evolution of ideas about suicide in a legal and historical context
should be relevant to psychiatry today. Examining historical records allows us
to explore early attitudes towards suicide and the demographics of suicide in
this period, adding to a longitudinal perspective of mental illness and
self-killing.

Suicide in medieval England and Eyre records

Suicide in medieval England was both a religious and a secular concern.
This is a particularly important time in the evolution of the common law and
legal ideas about intent and responsibility, and is the earliest period from
which central, official records on suicide are available. Self-murder was a
mortal sin in the eyes of the Church, penalised by prohibition of burial in
consecrated ground and also confiscation by royal authorities of the goods of
the deceased and the implement used to commit suicide (the deodand), whether
it belonged to the deceased or not.

The investigation of all deaths that did not seem to be natural was
entrusted to the coroner and a jury drawn from men in the area in which the
body was found. The jury was to report:

who found the deceased;

how the deceased died: whether of natural causes, by accident, by murder or
self-murder, and whether the death was felonious (a serious offence resulting
in the liability of execution of a living offender and to confiscation of land
and goods after death), that is, committed when the deceased was responsible
for his/her actions;

whether the deceased had any chattels (goods other than land) and who had
them now.

Reports of these investigations can be found in the few surviving rolls of
coroners from the 13th and early 14th centuries and, in greater numbers, in
the records of the Eyre, a judicial and administrative inquiry that was sent
out to English counties from the 12th to the early 14th centuries. Drawing on
information from coroners' inquests, Eyre juries were required to report all
suicides that had occurred since the last Eyre
(Hunnisett, 1959;
Helmholz, 1986). Their
information was not necessarily recent because Eyres visited counties no more
than every 7 years (Barker,
1990). Reports on suicides contained in them are generally very
terse, and are recorded in abbreviated, medieval legal Latin.

Eyre records are housed in the Public Record Office and are the best
existing source of information about suicide in medieval England. There are
few medical records for such an early period, the survival of coroners' rolls
is extremely patchy and very few medieval English church court records survive
(Hunnisett, 1959;
Helmholz, 1986). A small number
of references to suicide appear in chronicles; these are interesting but would
be unusual cases and may not be representative of suicides in general in this
period. Murray (1998) has
examined and analysed some of the Eyre records for this period but does not
entirely address issues of mental illness and self-killing.

Eyre records cannot answer all of the questions of interest to
psychiatrists; in particular, they cannot be used to give reliable data on
suicide rates. They can, however, be used to give useful qualitative data on
suicidal behaviour and concepts of mental state and responsibility for one's
actions.

METHOD

A sample of surviving records of Eyres were examined, transcribed and
translated by G.S. The majority of the records examined are from the period
1272-1300 because of the greater consistency of record-keeping in this period.
Transcribed records were examined by A.S. for demographic data (gender,
women's marital status, men's occupation), verdict as to the cause of death,
site and method of suicide and wealth of the deceased (as shown by the value
of the goods that were forfeited to the king).

RESULTS

Cases of self-killing were found in 28 rolls from 1227 to 1330
(Table 1). A total of 198 cases
of self-killing were recorded: 135 male and 63 female. Of these records 188
cases were regarded as suicide (i.e. self-murder) that was deemed felonious.
One case was regarded as not being a self-killing because it was a death due
to self-starvation, but we have included this because it illustrates that
omissions were regarded differently to active self-harm. Another case was
initially regarded as being a suicide but later, when more information was
available, was re-graded as an accidental death.

The verdict of Eyre rolls from selected English Eyre records between
1227 and 1330 (by gender)

Only eight cases of self-killing (six male and two female) were recorded as
accidents - non-felonious acts - rather than being the deliberate, willed act
of the deceased for which he/she was legally responsible. Various terms were
used to describe the state of illness of the individuals found to have killed
themselves but not to have been legally responsible for their action (which
was regarded as not having been caused by them because they were ill). Mental
illness is suggested by the reports, which describe the deceased as having
been demens (having lost his or her mind) or as having acted in
frenesi or per frenesy (in a frenzied state: through or because
of frenzy) or furore detentus (taken by madness). Understanding of
the effects on the mind of physical illness can be seen in descriptions of
people having been “suffering from an illness” or “suffering
from a high fever” at the time when the act causing death was
committed.

All the cases of accidental self-killing had descriptions of the
individuals having some sort of altered mental state involving a frenzy or
suffering from an illness. Abnormal mental states are mentioned in only six of
the cases of felonious suicides where the individuals are described as being
in a frenzy, et demens (without sense or mind) or
lunitacus.

Examples

The following transcriptions of case vignettes from the Eyre rolls
illustrate a number of cases where different verdicts were found in
self-killings.

Verdicts of suicide

“William de Wedmore, vicar of Chryriton hanged himself in his own
home in the same village. The verdict was suicide. And Walter de Wedmore and
John his brother(s) buried the said William without view of the coroner and
took his chattels, value 34s so they are to be arrested. Afterwards they came
to court and the sheriff let them go.” (Eyre of Somerset 1280)

This is a typical suicide verdict, the individual being judged to have
killed himself feloniously with deliberate intent. It illustrates attempts of
relatives to conceal a suicide in order to bury an individual, perhaps in
consecrated ground, and take his goods, which ought to have been forfeited to
the king, for themselves.

“A certain Richard son of Sibill gratis drowned himself in a pit at
Marshton St Lawrence. No one is suspected. Judgment felonious suicide.
Chattels 6s 2d.” (Eyre of Northamptonshire 1329)

This is a typical terse entry of a felonious suicide with no record of the
village concealing the death.

Verdicts of accident

“William la Emeyse of this vill, suffering from an acute fever which
took away his senses, got up at night, entered the water of Kentford and
drowned himself. The jury was asked if he did this feloniously and said no, he
did it through his illness. The verdict was an accident.” (Eyre of
Hereford 1292)

In this case the individual was found not to have feloniously committed
suicide because the cause of his death was his illness, rather than his own
specific intent. As a self-killing without intent it was regarded as an
accident.

“Thomas, son of Henry Robekyn of Brandon, in a frenzy (habens
frenesium) cut off his left foot with an axe and then his left hand, in
the house of the said Henry, his father, in Brandon, and the following night
he died from this. The first finder and four neighbours came and are not
suspected. The jury, asked if they suspect anyone else of this death say no
and say that the said Thomas straight after the deed came to his senses
(reddit' ad sensum proprium) and had the last rites of the church
before he died. So the deed was done through loss of sense and not
feloniously. So the judgment is accident.” (Eyre of Norfolk 1286)

Here, an individual was found to have done himself fatal injuries while he
was unable to form a specific intent because he was in a temporary state of
frenzy. The first finder acts as a witness to the Eyre. The verdict of
accidental death (infortunium) was bolstered by the fact that before
his death he was able to repent of his sins and have the last rites.

Verdict initially suicide, later revised to accident

“Ricardus de Kirkeby killed himself with his sword. First judged to
be suicide and his chattels were forfeit. Later it was sworn that he
accidentally fell on his sword.” (Eyre of Westmoreland 1278-1279)

In the margin the initial verdict of suicide is crossed out and ‘
accident’ is written. This might suggest that there was not an
initial reluctance to find a verdict of suicide.

Verdict initially accident, later changed to suicide

“Robert le Pestur accidentally drowned himself. Later (after wife
died) found to have done so voluntarily so verdict changed to suicide.”
(Eyre of Devon 1238)

Suicide not considered

“William de Boubegh burgled the home of John Martyn of Blaneford and
stole a bushel and a half of wheat and ran into the village watch who took him
and put him in custody in the stocks at Bryanston for 8 days. And this William
for this 8 days there would neither eat nor drink. After the said 8 days, he
died there. And the jury asked if the said William died through any constraint
or hardship whilst in prison. They said no. And it was recorded in the Eyre
roll that the matter was investigated before the coroner.” (Eyre of
Dorset 1288)

There is no record of a verdict of suicide here and the death appears to
have been recorded because it was a death in custody. This shows that a strict
distinction was made between causing one's own death by deliberate act and
doing so by deliberate omission.

Demographic information derived from Eyre records

Marital status

It is not always possible to tell the marital status of women (and it is
never documented for men unless their wife was the finder of their body). A
woman is sometimes described as being the wife of a man but it is often not
clear if her husband is alive or not. In strict law, the chattels of a woman
came under the control of her husband while they were married, so if a woman
is recorded as having had chattels, this implies that she was not married or
was a widow (Barker, 1990).
However, we have only used marital status noted in the records rather than
making inter-pretations based on the presence of chattels.

One woman is described as being unknown to the jury and for another 23, no
note of spouse or relatives is made. Of the remaining cases, 11 are described
as being the daughter of a man, probably implying that they are not married, 4
are said to be widows and 24 are said to be the wife of a man. Although
suicide is more common now in the separated, divorced and widowed
(Kreitman, 1988), there are no
data about the relative proportion of married, unmarried and widowed women in
medieval society so it is not possible to determine whether any particular
group is overrepresented in our group of suicides.

Occupation

Occupation is recorded in few men - probably a reflection of the
irrelevancy of this to the court but possibly because of the low frequency of
specific occupations - but five clergymen, two servants, one goldsmith, two
millers and one baker can be identified. There do not appear to be any
individuals of really high rank because they would certainly have been
identified by title.

Wealth of suicides

Goods forfeited to the king are recorded in all but two cases
(Table 2). Some individuals
only forfeited the deodand (weapon of their self-killing), whereas others had
significant resources (8 pounds and 6 shillings in the case of one woman and
31 pounds and 2 shillings in the case of one man) and would be regarded as ‘
wealthy’ (Dyer,
1989). Women rarely forfeited more than a pound.

Goods forfeited to the crown by individuals committing felonious
suicide, from selected English Eyre records between 1227 and 1330 (by
gender)

Method of suicide

It was usual to record the method of suicide in the Eyre records, both
because of a need to show the cause of death and because the implement causing
a death was forfeited to the king under the law of deodand. In 189 cases the
method of suicide was recorded. We have grouped deaths by stabbing or cutting
with knives, daggers, forks, swords or other sharp objects together
(Table 3). Hanging is the most
common method of self-killing in both men and women, drowning is the next most
common in men and women and the use of sharp objects is an almost exclusively
male method of self-killing. Other methods of self-killing are rare.

Method of self-killing from selected English Eyre records between 1227
and 1330 (by gender and verdict)

Location of death

In two-thirds of records the general location of the suicide is noted:
whether the body was found in its own home, that of another, in water or in
another outside location such as a field or wood
(Table 4). Given our current
understanding of medieval gender roles, with women being largely based inside
the home (Hanawalt, 1998), we
expected that men might be more likely to commit suicide outside the home and
women inside the home. There is, however, no gender difference in the site of
committing suicide.

Site of self-killing from selected English Eyre records between 1227
and 1330 (by gender)

Time of suicide

In a small number of cases of suicide (one woman and five men) it was noted
that the suicide took place at night. The time of suicide was not otherwise
noted.

DISCUSSION

Reliability of records

Although the Eyre records are incomplete, we have managed to find records
of 198 cases of self-killing. That so many records exist is a result of the
importance of legal documents and of the early centralisation of justice in
medieval England. English legal documents afford the best available body of
factual information on medieval suicide.

Murray (1998), in the first
of his volumes on suicide in the Middle Ages, examines medieval legal records,
including some Eyre rolls, for the period that we have studied. Although we
have a number of cases in common, we present new cases that have not been
reported elsewhere and we have explored the information differently.

We would anticipate that the records that we have examined underrepresent
the true number of suicides in the communities that the reporting Eyres
represent for a number of reasons. First, there are clearly missing records
for this period. Sometimes it can be seen that suicide cases mentioned at the
coroner's inquest do not appear on the Eyre roll. Second, it is likely that
suicide was underreported. It is recognised that even today suicide rates are
underestimated through imperfect detection and an assumption that a death that
might have been suicide was an accident unless proved otherwise
(Symonds, 1985). It has been
suggested that there would have been pressure on medieval communities to
underreport suicides to royal officials, because of the consequences for the
family of the suicide, who could not bury him or her in consecrated ground
according to the rites of the Church, and would be unable to keep the
suicide's goods (Hanawalt,
1979; MacDonald & Murphy,
1990). The records show some cases of attempts to conceal
suicides, with families or neighbours burying those who had killed themselves,
or removing the goods of a suicide before they could be examined by royal
authorities. Presumably some similar offences went undetected. More detailed
examination of the Eyres shows no evidence that self-killing was underreported
to a greater extent than other offences: it is accepted that there was a gap
between law and practice in medieval England.

The cases may be drawn from an unrepresentatively affluent population. No
reliable information is available as to the population size and wealth in
England before the late 14th century, but on any estimate the number of people
with little or no money or valuable goods that could be forfeited to the king
must have been large. Few poor individuals, however, appear in our data. It is
possible, but unlikely, that poorer individuals were less inclined to kill
themselves. It would be more likely that those responsible for reporting
suspicious deaths to the coroner did not report deaths of poorer individuals
without social standing or goods to be forfeited.

Although clerics appear to be over-represented, many men were involved in
church activities and the presence of a description as a cleric does not
indicate their level of involvement in the church. What does appear to be
important in their description as a cleric is that their profession is
mentioned at all, whereas few others are. Perhaps this is because the sin of
self-murder was particularly abhorrent in those who were preaching that it was
a sin. It might be suggested that there would be less pressure for concealment
of suicide of clerics who did not have descendants to inherit their goods, but
because some lower level priests were able to marry there would have been the
usual pressure to conceal their suicide.

Methods of self-killing

As the implement causing death was forfeited to the crown, relatively
complete records of method of suicide were available. There are no recorded
cases of self-poisoning as a method of suicide. Self-poisoning was a
particularly unacceptable method of self-killing and there may have been some
cultural bias against using this method to kill oneself
(MacDonald & Murphy,
1990). It seems unlikely, however, given the accessibility of
naturally occurring poisons and widespread knowledge of herbal remedies
(Rawcliffe, 1997), that
self-poisoning did not occur. Chronicle sources have shown knowledge of
poisoning in this period (Paris,
1880). More likely explanations of the lack of reports of suicide
by poisoning would seem to be either the inability of medieval inquests to
detect the presence of poisons in the body or the lack of suspicion aroused by
deaths without the presence of physical evidence external to the body.

Hanging was the most commonly recorded method of suicide in both men and
women, accounting for over half the deaths in total. It would be likely that a
greater proportion of deaths by hanging than other methods were reported to
the Eyre because there was incontrovertible physical evidence of self-killing
and objects to be forfeited to the crown (the rope and beam). It may also be
that there actually were proportionately more deaths by hanging. In women, it
could be that the reluctance to hang themselves, which is suggested by later
figures, was overcome in the Middle Ages because of a lack of alternatives.
They may have been less able or willing to poison themselves and, having a
more home-based domestic role, may have been less able to drown themselves
because this would have necessitated them leaving their usual ‘women's
space’. Our data, however, do not give us any evidence to support
this.

Death by drowning was also common. It is likely to have been underreported
because if the body was not found the coroner did not have to become involved.
In addition, deaths by drowning often may have been thought to be accidental
and not usually reported as suspicious.

The use of knives, axes or swords is predominantly a male method of
suicide. This may reflect cultural acceptability of male use of such
implements or greater accessibility of these for men. The latter seems
unlikely, because women would have ready access to potentially lethal
household knives and axes. The greater use by men than women of sharp
instruments as a method of suicide may, rather, be due to the cultural
acceptability of violence in men that might generalise to violence in suicide
in men. This shows an important consistency with the excess of violent methods
of suicide seen in men now (Appleby et
al, 1999).

Self-burning is rare, as is death by jumping, reflecting the lack of high
buildings and that jumping from cliffs or bridges into water might be regarded
as an accidental fall, the body could have disappeared or, if seen as
deliberate, might have been recorded as a drowning case.

Comparison with later suicide statistics

There are twice as many recorded cases of suicide in men than women. This
may be a true record of gender ratios but it is possible that the rates in
women are under-represented because married women were unlikely to have
independent goods to be forfeited to the crown. However, one of the more
robust findings in suicide statistics across the ages in England is the higher
recorded suicide rate in men compared with women. Contemporary statistics and
studies looking at suicide in Victorian, Tudor and Stuart times have all shown
similarly increased rates in men (Anderson,
1987; MacDonald & Murphy,
1990). The roles of men and women in society have changed little
until recent times so it is not possible to say whether this gender difference
has a biological or social origin.

Although the excess of male suicides appears to be constant, the methods of
suicide appear to vary with time, which probably reflects accessible and
culturally acceptable means of suicide. In medieval suicides, as mentioned
previously, there are no cases of poisoning because this was a particularly
abhorrent method, whereas today this is a common method of suicide in women in
Britain. In our cases, hanging is the most common method of suicide and there
are no gender differences in this, whereas the Victorian studies suggest that
men were much more likely to hang themselves than women, whose characteristic
method of suicide was drowning.

Descriptions of mental illness and understanding of intent

Clarke (1975) discusses
descriptions and treatment of those with mental illness in this period. The
language used in the Eyre rolls to describe suicides apparently due to mental
illness is consistent with that which Clarke discusses and in our study the
use of descriptions of the felonious and non-felonious suicides in those
apparently suffering from mental illness is interesting. Returning a verdict
of accident, rather than suicide, in cases of self-killing was rare.
Accidental verdicts were found where mental disturbance was caused by a
physical illness (e.g. “labouring under an acute fever”) or an
inherent mental disturbance did not allow the individual to form the requisite
intent. In this case series there were only eight such accidental verdicts.
These individuals had to be sufficiently impaired as a result of illness to be
unable to form the intent to kill themselves. The descriptions of these
individuals imply that they were suffering from severe mental illnesses,
probably psychotic illnesses, and that they were easily recognisable as
behaving unusually to those around them. Of the felonious suicides, six were
identified as clearly suffering from mental illness but apparently able to be
responsible for their own actions and thus for killing themselves. That the
remaining 182 individuals killing themselves were free of any mental illness
would seem very unlikely, given current information about mental illness in
those killing themselves (Barraclough
et al, 1974). It would seem more likely that many of them
were suffering from non-psychotic or quietly psychotic illnesses. This implies
that there was a difference in the understanding of the ability to form
intent, that labouring under a frenzy one could not do so whereas in other
psychiatric states one could. Although not as yet systematically examined,
homicide records from this period would seem to support this distinction
(Hunard, 1969).

Significantly, in the eight cases of non-felonious self-killing there are
no cases of hanging, although it is common in the sample as a whole. This may
shed more light on the idea of the sort of mental states that were regarded as
excusing conduct that might otherwise be criminal. The act of hanging may have
been seen as requiring a more deliberate plan than self-killing by drowning or
stabbing, which might be more impulsive and require less structured thought,
so that it was inconceivable to medieval jurors that a person whose mental
state was such that it would excuse otherwise criminal actions would be able
to hang himself.

Further research in this field will focus on the attitudes of juries during
this period, an extension of the examination of coroners' records into the
late medieval period, many of which have not yet been examined, and exploring
the evolution of ideas about intent and psychiatric theories. In addition we
intend to develop an understanding of across-time, cross-cultural psychiatry.
There has recently been an upsurge of interest among historians and lawyers in
suicide, and this area should also be of importance to and illuminated by
psychiatrists.

Clinical Implications and Limitations

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

This paper gives a historical perspective on suicide at a time of evolving
legal and religious attitudes to suicide during the earliest period for which
English legal records are available.

Self-killing is more common in men than women in the medieval period; this
is a consistent finding over time.

Few of the individuals killing themselves were regarded as suffering from
mental illnesses.